Wednesday, January 11, 2012

Alabama's anti immigrant campaign

The Southern Poverty Law Center
has won some encouraging victories in the months since we launched our effort
to defeat Alabama’s harsh anti-immigrant law.

We’ve also had some
disappointments. And we’ve seen this law bring fear and chaos to this state.
More than 3,000 calls have poured into our hotline for immigrants affected by
the law. But this legal battle is far from over. In fact, it’s just getting
started.

Currently, the following
provisions of HB 56 are in effect:

•Police are allowed
to check the immigration status of people they stop and reasonably suspect are
in the country unlawfully.

•All new contracts
between an undocumented immigrant and another person are unenforceable in state
court, with the exception of contracts for one night’s lodging, food purchases
and medical services.

•It is a felony for
undocumented immigrants to enter into a “business transaction” with the state
of Alabama. The scope of this felony remains unclear, but includes applying for
a driver’s license or a business license. The provision also include
transactions with subdivisions of the state, such as cities and counties.

Beginning April 1, 2012,
employers will be required to use e-verify to determine the immigration status
of prospective employees.

Other provisions of the law
have been temporarily blocked by the courts. These include provisions that:

•Require K-12 school
officials to question students about their immigration status and that of their
parents.

•Make it a
misdemeanor for failing to complete or carry an alien registration card.

•Prohibit employers
from taking state tax deductions for wages paid to undocumented workers.

•Allow employers to
be sued for discrimination by people with U.S. citizen or legal immigration
status when they are fired or not hired by an employer with undocumented
employees.

These parts of the law have
been blocked as the lawsuits make their way through the courts. The trial and
an appeals court agreed with our arguments – and the arguments of others
challenging this law – that, among other things, allowing enforcement of these
provisions would cause irreparable injury and that we were likely to succeed on
the merits of our claims.

We would have preferred for the
entire law to be blocked until a final – and permanent – ruling is reached by
the judicial system. While that has not happened, we’re encouraged that we’ve
kept several provisions from taking effect.

It’s important because a long
legal process is ahead of us. Right now, we have been granted a partial preliminary
injunction, which will last until the federal district court makes a final
ruling in the case. It is this preliminary injunction that is
currently on appeal in the Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit (it is also the
preliminary injunction that the 11th Circuit expanded by blocking two additional provisions of HB 56
while the appeal is pending).

After the 11th Circuit rules, the same issues
could go as high as the U.S. Supreme Court. But that is just the beginning.
After the appeals process of the preliminary injunction is over, we will go
back to the U.S. District Court and seek a permanent injunction – an
order that permanently blocks parts of the law from taking effect.

The SPLC is ready for this long
legal battle. The fear and panic that has spread across Alabama is a stark and
frightening reminder of why this law must be struck down. We have seen families
pulling their children from school out of fear. Crops are rotting in the fields
because workers – regardless of their immigration status – have fled the state
rather than live under this law. Families have been told their water supply
will be cut off because they cannot produce their “papers.”

This isn’t a viable or humane
solution to the problems in our nation’s immigration system. It’s a campaign of
fear and chaos that has trampled the rights of the state’s residents. We will
not stop until this law is defeated and the rights of all Alabamians are
protected.